Letters

I thought I'd jot down some desiderata. When I look about me — and within — what do I see? Defeatism in the face of political regimes in socalled advanced countries — Thatcher and Reagan opening Pandora's box. People, decent people, are cowed. Regimes in so-called socialist countries, e.g., Mozambique, Cuba, which do not live up to their alluring promise. Regimes in old socialist countries which long ago abandoned such promise.

Racism — interpersonal, institutionalized — forming a basis for relations between states: white/black, black/brown, Jew/Arab, WASP/Jew, black/brown/Jew, Protestant/Catholic. Drug dependency — booze, pills, cocaine, heroin, tranquillizers. Rape. Sexism. Classism. Ageism. Child abuse. Military-industrial domination. Nuclear weapons. Unemployment. A declining health service. A declining education sector. Wealthy analysts, living grandly. Joel Kovel once said that the problem about psychoanalysis is, finally, the social location of its practitioners.

When I look at the psychoanalytic journals, I do not see these issues addressed. Why is this? What can be done to change it? If this journal is about the broader cultural, political and group relations of psychoanalysis, why do we not receive contributions about such matters? How can we elicit them?

Though born in the period up to and including the bombing of Libya, this is, nevertheless, a sisyphean letter.